1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved seal for a vertically elongated rectangular coke oven door.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Coke oven doors have heretofore incorporated seals intended to provide sealing of an associated coke oven door opening with the door in a closed position. These doors are normally elongated in a vertical direction with a length of approximately twenty feet and a width of about two feet. With one type of such a door, an operator driven truck with a door carrying mechanism is utilized to position the door in its closed position prior to firing of the oven for preparation of a batch of coke, and the truck is also utilized to remove the door after the coke firing process has been completed. Upper and lower latch mechanisms are utilized to retain the door in its closed position on the coke oven during the firing. Keepers of the latch mechanisms are mounted on the oven with hook-shaped configurations that open upwardly to receive spring biased latch arms mounted on the door so as to maintain the door in engagement with the oven about the associated door opening. To position the door in its closed position, the operator driven truck carries the door so that latch arms are positioned above the hook-shaped keepers such that subsequent downward sliding of the door locates the latch arms thereof within the confines of the keepers to permit the biasing that engages the door with the oven. During removal, the door is slid upwardly by the truck to release the latch arms from the keepers prior to outward movement of the door that provides access to the door opening for removal of the fired coke.
Certain problems have been encountered in attempting to provide an effective seal for coke oven doors of the above-described type. This sealing is necessary to conform to governmental emissions regulations intended to preserve the quality of the environment. One problem with prior seals designed to provide this sealing is that they tend to "snake" along the edges of the doors in a plane across the door opening due to thermal expansion with respect to the door. Another problem with such seals is that they have not been sufficiently flexible in a direction normal to the plane across the door opening to accommodate for irregularities more than 3/8 of an inch or so in the oven surface about the periphery of the associated door opening. It is difficult to achieve complete sealing with a seal having these problems, and since coke ovens have an internal gas pressure of approximately 3 or 4 psi above atmospheric pressure, the gases and tars, etc. present within the oven can escape to the environment.